Saving money on day to day grocery essentials

12/03/2018

When you’re trying to save money at home it can seem relatively easy to save on some of the bigger expenses. Things like shopping around for insurance deals, switching your utility supplier, waiting until the sales to buy a new fridge or washing machine. That kind of thing. But, when it comes to the things that we buy week in week out it can be much harder, especially if you’re time poor.

Not all of us have the time to wander around the supermarket looking for special offers or are able to time our trip so that it coincides with when staff members mark down the reductions on things that are about to go out of date. Also knowing which supermarkets to visit for which offers can be a bit of a minefield.

If you’re someone who likes to meal plan then it also helps to know what vouchers and coupons you have before you set off to the shops. And if you’re someone who doesn’t yet meal plan then please start now, as it will make a huge amount of difference. Not only are you more likely to have a shopping list that you stick to when going round the shops, but you can also plan to cook in bulk on certain days to take advantage of special offers on certain ingredients. The other advantage from doing so is that you can then have something in the freezer ready for a day when you don’t have much time to cook.

When we move house one of my plans is to invest in a large freezer to go in the garage so that I can spend a day or so a month bulk cooking and then have several days on which I don’t need to do anything more than heat something up in the oven or microwave.

It’s also always worth looking at special offers on non-perishable items too. I always pick up things like loo rolls when I can get them at a discount and as long as you have somewhere dry to store them it’s definitely worth doing. I also follow in my grandparents footsteps in terms of being a fan of things in cans. There are certain things that I know we’ll always use – especially backed beans and tinned tomatoes – so again I tend to buy them by the tray load when I can and keep them on shelves in the garage.

There’s definitely money to be saved out there on grocery items, you just need to know where to look for the savings!